The journey is the destination. You carry your journey with you.

the three muses: postage stamps

traveller2006 — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 19:31:52 +0000

Whilst exploring an internet link I came across a blog called the three muses and they have a challenge to use postage stamps in some form in your artwork. I love postage stamps and incorporating them into my artwork and made these journal pages

Pebbles was one of my favourite cats

and I think Sandy was my alltime favourite

Beyond Layers week 39 quotes

traveller2006 — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 17:18:41 +0000

In week 39 Kim challenged us to illustrate a number of words using photos with or without quotes

Life

Peace

Change

Intentions

Focus

Travel theme: rhythm

traveller2006 — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 17:01:08 +0000

Ailsa, over at wheres my back pack challenged us to find a photo illustrating rhythm.

In most catholic countries the calendar is punctuated by a large number of saints days and festivals, each one being an occasion for celebration and for the ritual of the procession through the streets carrying an image of the virgin. There is rhythm in the succession of the dates as well as the rhythm of the people walking in the procession and the bearers who carry the image on their shoulders whose rhythm is probably somewhat less regular than that of the other participants.

In the small town of Vianden in the north part of Luxembourg (that small country wedged in between France, Germany, Belgium and Holland) we watched the statue of the Virgin Mary being paraded round the streets as part of the celebration of the Feast of the Assumption in mid-August.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Today

traveller2006 — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 15:38:31 +0000

This week’s challenge from the Daily Post was “Today! This week’s theme is a bit different (but you like that, don’t you?) – it’s about TODAY. This day. The day you’re reading and reacting to this post. No rules or guidance on what to post other than the photo must be taken today! Don’t cheat, don’t go into your photo archives on your computer, don’t link to an old post. Get your camera out, right now, and snap a picture to share with everyone!”
These are photos I took this afternoon near the house

I love the flowers and seed pods of the jacaranda tree

beautiful yellow mimosa, it smells good too

allium heads

succulent plant – nature’s mandala

Scampi, who is not usually this obliging

Photo Art Friday: bokeh

traveller2006 — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 08:51:07 +0000

Bonnie has challenged us this work to come up with some pictures of bokeh, either naturally occurring or ones to which we’ve added a bokeh effect. I’ve borrowed Bonnie’s description of bokeh: *Photoble.com says: “bokeh comes from the Japanese word ‘boke’, which means fuzzy. In photography, bokeh defines the quality of the blurred lights presented in a photo. We’re not referring to a badly taken photo that’s all out of focus, but rather the aesthetically pleasing background blur. Usually, this type of blur highlights the focused subject even more. Producing nice bokeh involves creating a shallow depth of field.” Bokeh occurs naturally in photographs with a shallow depth of field and that are full of natural light.

Unfortunately I didn’t have time to play with my photos this week so here are some photos of naturally occurring bokeh taken in Luxembourg in the spring.

I’m also linking these photos up to Leanne’s Flower Art Friday

Texture Tuesday-warmth

traveller2006 — Tue, 29 May 2012 08:56:38 +0000

photo textured with Kim’s Friday texture and blended in Colour burn at 58%

Travel theme: Street Markets

traveller2006 — Sat, 26 May 2012 15:11:25 +0000

Ailsa has challenged us again to come up with some images from our travels of street markets. I’ve always loved the colour and vibrancy of street markets and the variety of what’s on offer. Some markets may only offer produce but many offer a huge choice of everything a household could possibly need and more besides. Wherever the market is, be it Europe or Asia or beyond, it would be hard to resist the tempting displays. Here are some market images from my travels in Cambodia:

These were taken in Pnomh-Pen

street markets are wonderfully chaotic places with people jostling to get at the produce

a food stall with food ready to feed the hungry hoardes

a vendor of floral decorations for the temple

a sugar cane vendor

a turmeric vendor

banana flowers, mini aubergines, pineapple and okra on sale

a selection of edible roots and shoots

small pumpkins decorated in honour of the Chinese New Year

more edible goodies

rice noodles packed in layers of banana leaves

grilled cat fish kebabs

some things look more tempting than others

a bowl of the sea shells known as volutes, they are such beautiful shells I couldn’t possibly eat them and I was saddened to see them on sale there

these were taken in Siem Reap

flower vendors at the edge of the market

get your palm juice here

not exactly a market but a street vendor nonetheless of lotus heads

Friday photo art 25 May

traveller2006 — Fri, 25 May 2012 08:00:25 +0000

Here is my entry for Friday 25 May 2012 for PDPA’s challenge to showcase a piece of abstract art based on nature

based on this photo of spider lilies

I’m also sharing this photo with Flower Art Friday

travel theme: summer

traveller2006 — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:31:14 +0000

Last week’s impromptu ‘Reflections‘ challenge hosted by Ailsa was so much fun, she asked if we could do it again? She went on to say “There are many other photo challenges out there, but how about one with a travel theme? I love finding out about great places waiting to be discovered, and it doesn’t have to be an exotic location, either. What’s everyday in your part of the world is exotic to someone who doesn’t live there.” Curiously enough, the WordPress weekly challenge is also on the theme of summer so I’ve linked this post there too.

We have been visiting Provence on and off over the years and I never tire of the landscape and the flowers. Early summer brings masses of purple irises, brilliant poppies, sunflowers and fields and fields of lavender.

what could be better than a lunch al fresco, sitting in a small French village?

or exploring the local fruit and vegetable market

or browsing the stalls at a local antiques market in Isle sur la Sorgue

view from the house in the early morning

all of these remind me of summers spent in the cicada-buzzing heat, waves of lavender perfume washing over you as you drive past the fields

TT-light-22 May 2012

traveller2006 — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:01:19 +0000

Kim’s challenge this week was to interpret “light” in any way we chose and to incorporate at least one of her textures.

I’ve used Kim’s “and then some” texture blended in exclusion for this version

for this one I used “cool grunge” blended in overlay aat 65% opacity and then used the posterised edge filter

this is the original photo where the light from the setting sun cast really strong shadows on the flowers on the wall behind